


Visits

by FountainPen



Series: Vampiric Growth Spurt [5]
Category: Paranatural (Webcomic)
Genre: I Wrote This Instead of Sleeping, M/M, Other Characters Are Mentioned, and i couldn't just not mention it okay, but he does his best, stephen is a conspiracy theorist but it never said he was a good one, the word yeethaw is from the insolent children discord, this one took forever because I jumped around so much
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-17
Updated: 2018-08-17
Packaged: 2019-06-28 13:29:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,452
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15708192
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FountainPen/pseuds/FountainPen
Summary: Cody and Stephen chill at Stephen's, the Puckett's get a visit from Davy. The Jang deliberates on the prospect of Cody being not-quite-human.





	Visits

Cody was almost sad when the camping trip ended. Almost, because he hated sleeping on the ground, and Cody was sick of gnats. Either way, the trip was coming to an end, and Cody had finished packing up his things.

 

“Hey, Cody,” Stephen said, walking over with his duffel bag of belongings tucked under his arm. “You walking home?”

 

“Yeah, my dad is the worst at navigating, and my house isn’t far from here, so I’m gonna walk,” Cody replied.

 

“Oh cool, you wanna walk together?” Stephen asked, grinning.

 

“Oh- uh sure!” Cody said. “When were you planning on heading out?”

 

“About twenty minutes, I wanna help get the rest’a RJ’s stuff packed.”

 

“Alright!” Cody said as Stephen turned back toward his, RJ, and Ollie’s tent area.

 

\--

 

“So we chased after whatever it was, and it totally disappeared!” Stephen exclaimed, talking about his and Ollie’s excursion into the woods as Cody did his best not to look like something Stephen had chased through the woods at night.

 

“Did you ever see it again?” Cody asked as innocently as he was able to.

 

“Nope.” Stephen sighed. “But this one time, RJ and I were heading toward the lake at night to meet up with the others and there was this massive bear thing with a bunch of legs! I’ve seen it at least twice.”

 

“Wait, really?”

 

“Yeah! You should totally come and look for it with me- uh, I mean if you want to?” Stephen flushed, rubbing the back of his neck with his free hand.

 

“It sounds like fun, I’d love to,” Cody replied with a smile.

 

“Um, cool. Next Friday?”

 

“Sounds good to me!” Cody smiled.

 

Stephen and Cody talked about cryptids, school, and their friends until the two reached Cody’s house.

 

“Thanks for walking with me Stephen, it was fun!” Cody said as he went to open the door, only to find it locked. Cody knocked a couple of times and rang the bell, but there was no response from his father. “Great.”

 

“What is it?” Stephen asked. Cody jumped, he’d forgotten Stephen was there. 

 

“Oh, my dad’s not here, so I’m locked out.”

 

“Well that sucks, you wanna come over to my place and play some video games?”

 

“Would your parents be okay with that?” Cody asked. “We just got back from the camping trip.”

 

“Yeah, Johnny n’ them come over all the time, as long as I don’t break anything it’s cool.”

 

“Alright, I’ll let my dad know where I am when we get there, cell service sucks in this area,” Cody said.

 

Along the way to Stephen’s house, the two continued the conversations they’d been having on the way over, stopping near the park to say hello to Isabel and Suzy, who were making their way home, meaning the last of the teens had left the campsite.

 

“And I’m just saying, the word yeethaw is a perfectly valid word,” Stephen said while Cody laughed.

 

“No! It’s the least valid word!”

 

“Is not,” Stephen grinned.

 

“It’s it’s own brand of profanity, oh my god.”

 

“You’re profanity,” Stephen said. “Oh, there’s my house, yeethaw amirite?”

 

“No, you are not right, you are in fact, very wrong,” Cody said, following as Stephen pushed open the front door. Cody began to follow Stephen in, but only succeeded in smacking his head against a wall he couldn’t see. Cody quickly glanced down, checking for any running water but found none.

 

“What’re’ya waitin for dude, an invitation?” Stephen asked, turning and seeing Cody standing in the doorway. “Come on in!” Cody swallowed thickly, and took a small step forward, expecting his foot to bump into an invisible barrier, but Cody felt no such resistance. Cody took another, larger step forward, relieved that he wasn’t going to have to explain that he couldn’t enter Stephen’s house because of some weird vampiric law that Cody was going to have to ask his dad about.

 

“Sorry, coming,” Cody said. “I was just uh- just about to let my dad know I was here.” Cody pulled out his phone and let his dad know he was at a friend’s house before following Stephen.

 

“I hope you’re ready to be virtually murdered.” Stephen grinned as Cody caught up.

 

“And I hope you’re willing to eat your words,” Cody replied. “What are we playing.”

 

“Is Street Fighter okay?”

 

\--

 

Max dragged his feet on his way home, exhaustion from the camping trip finally settling in. Isaac and Johnny were both on their separate ways home in opposite directions, so there wasn’t any banter to distract Max from his fatigue.

 

Fatigue, that was swept away by a bout of mortal panic at the sight of Cody’s father standing outside the Corner Store, talking to Max’s father. Max quickened his pace, entering the store a moment or two after Mr. Jones and Max’s father did.

 

“Oh hey, Max! How was the campout?” Max’s dad asked, and Max swallowed down the fear buzzing in his head.

 

“It uh, it was great,” Max replied. “My team won the water balloon fight this year.”

 

“That’s wonderful!” Dad Puckett said, sliding behind the counter. “This is Davy, he’s a local business owner and was just giving me some pointers.”

 

“Um… cool.”

 

“I believe you’re in a few of my son’s classes. Cody’s mentioned you.” Mr. Jones said, shooting a dark look at Max while his dad pulled a chair out from the closet behind the counter for his guest.

 

“Really? Small world!” Max almost couldn’t believe his father was that incapable of reading a mood, but on the other hand, his father’s obliviousness was for the best, there was the very real possibility that Davy could kill him. Cody’s father was likely here to remind Max of the promise he and Isaac had made.

 

“I’m gonna- I’m gonna head upstairs,” Max said.

 

“Alright kiddo! Zoe’s making pasta so dinner’ll be ready soon!” 

 

—

 

As soon as Cody left, Stephen summoned his boys, sending a message to the group chat reserved for emergency level crises. It RJ all of two minutes to materialize outside his window, and Ollie and Johnny following minutes after that.

 

“What going on buddy?” Ollie asked a pacing Stephen. 

 

“It’s Cody!”

 

“What’s Cody?” Johnny asked from his spot on top of Stephen’s desk. “Did he do somethin’, cause I will completely disregard the Words before Murd’s policy if he hurt ya.”

 

“No, he hasn’t done anything-,” Stephen replied quickly. “But there’s something else going on here, dude!”

 

“What?”

 

“Stephen,” RJ said, calming Stephen down some.

 

“I don’t know yet, I have a few theories but I feel like I’m missing something!”

 

“Stephen, your crush is not a cryptid,” RJ said.

 

“Listen, I wouldn’t have said anything if something if I wasn’t sure.”

 

“Alright then, no knockin’ a theory till we’ve have some evidence n’ all that,” Johnny said. “Give us those juicy deets, Mulder.”

 

“Alright, I’ll start with the biggest piece of info I have. Me n’ Ollie told you guys about the woods right?” Stephen asked, and received nods from his friends. “Well, what we saw was definitely a person, but just a little too fast. It turns out Cody was gone from his tent for a while.” RJ reminded Stephen that Cody said he was sleepwalking."

 

“Yeah, Ed said that’s what he said.” Ollie agreed.

 

“Yeah, well combined with my other stuff it’ll look different. “Remember that day I was running late a couple weeks back?”

 

“Yeah.” Johnny nodded.

 

“Well I saw Cody walking to school, and for some reason, it looked like he was running into something, even though there was nothing there.”

 

“Is he another spectral?” Ollie asked.

 

“That’s what I thought, cause Max was there too, but Johnny’d’a heard about it, and he’d end up talking more to the AC,” Stephen replied. “But there’s a couple other things.

 

“Okay, go.”

 

“So, Cody is always snappier on really sunny days, the ones that’re perfect for hanging out in the park,” Stephen said. “And he never eats, I’ve never seen Cody eat before, even at the campouts when everyone was making smores.”

 

“Is that all?”

 

“Well, earlier today he came over cause he got locked out of his house- his dad wasn’t home, and it… it was like he couldn’t come inside for a minute.”

 

“Theories?” Ollie asked.

 

“Well, one is that he’s emo, but I doubt it. Two is a werewolf, three is Mothman, and four is a vampire.”

 

“Well cross off Mothman, he was in Michigan,” RJ said.

 

“Vampire just doesn’t seem probable to me,” Ollie added.

  
“I don’t think Cody’s an emo  _ or _ a werewolf, but Stephen, buddy, we believe you when you say somethin’s goin on, okay?” Johnny said. “And we’re gonna help ya find out what.”


End file.
